Seventh Level, Three Flowers; Eighth Level, Crowning the Summit; Ninth Level, Return to Origin!

Time passed, flying like an arrow.

More than two hundred days flashed by, and through his daily accumulation, Su Changsheng gradually reached the peak of the seventh level.

Now, all the conditions for Advancement to the Eighth Level were in place. He needed only that final step across the threshold.

But this was also the hardest part.

He had no idea how to proceed, so he could only set it aside for now and give his taut nerves a little respite.

"From the torrential rain season, we've already entered another, even longer winter."

"Even with a lifespan of five hundred years, the years spare no yao."

He opened the door and gazed outside.

The entire Right Stronghold was wrapped in white. Between heaven and earth, only the north wind continued its unbroken howl.

Cold. Silent.

Snow lay thick and white, and early winter had arrived.

Heaven and earth stretched boundlessly, all things vast and open.

Su Changsheng emptied his mind, recalling this lengthy period of cultivation and what he had gained.

Three months earlier, the seemingly endless rainy season had already stopped. Yet the Right Stronghold Plain, flooded by the Black Mountain River, had still not recovered from that flood disaster, the likes of which came once in a century.

After the rainy season came a brief autumn.

A mere two months.

Now, as the Black Mountain River's swollen waters gradually receded, the temperature around it began to fall.

It changed by the day, dropping below freezing in just over ten days.

Yesterday, this winter's first snowfall had brewed and descended, abrupt and heavy, giving the myriad living things no chance to catch their breath.

Nature in the Wilds was cruel and merciless.

Although the Black Mountain River's waters had now receded, losing their savage, roaring aspect of recent days,